How our global cultural identities are revealed in clothing and trade routes of textiles

2-December-2002

The old adage we are what we wear will take on a worldwide perspective at a one-day workshop followed by a three-day international conference to be held at the University of Wollongong starting today (Thursday 28 November).

The globalisation conference has attracted the world's foremost academics and practising artists and will focus on cultural distinctions in textile production and trade in Canada, India, the Pacific and Australia. Conference participants will examine how the wearing of international textiles creates various cultural identities and how writers and the makers of history create stories (fiction and non-fiction) that make up our post-colonial world.

For example, there is Salman Rushdie and the Kashmir map shawls; the making of Australia as a nation through the story of the embroidery in the new Parliament House; a treaty made in beads (wampum) from the North American Mohawk; and describing Aboriginal Tiwi artefacts as literature; and a UNESCO consultant who speaks about living cultural traditions from India.

One of the features of the conference, entitled Fabric(ation)s of the Postcolonial, will be a keynote address by the best selling author of "Carpet Wars", Christopher Kremmer, on Saturday evening 30 November.

Kremmer's early short stories won several awards. He has worked for several years as foreign correspondent with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. From 1997 he was South Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

See http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/iscci/projects/fabrications/f_conferences.html

Conference organiser Lycia Trouton, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Creative Arts, said the conference was of great significance to the visual arts, English literature and materials cultural anthropology, as well as cultural communications studies communities, and aboriginal communities.

An art exhibition, Unfolding Territories, which features indigenous and non-indigenous artwork will be held in the Cloisters Gallery, Faculty of Creative Arts, in conjunction with the conference over the period 28 November to 5 December. A larger travelling exhibition, featuring the unusual pairing of historical colonial textiles with contemporary textiles, will follow in 2003-2004.

The conference is being held under the auspices of the University's Institute for Social Change and Critical Inquiry. It has also received support from an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, The Australian-India Council, the Centre for Research in Image, Performance and Text and the Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies.

Media please note: For any general enquiries contact Lycia Trouton on (02) 4221 3387 or via email on lycia@uow.edu.au During the conference itself Ms Trouton can be reached on her mobile 0401 485919. The Curatorial Assistant for the art exhibition is Emma Rutherford (emmar@uow.edu.au) or phone (02) 4221 4269.

Venue:The main venue for the overall conference will be the Friday - McKinnon Building 67, Lecture Hall No.104 and Saturday/Sunday - Creative Arts, Building No.25, Lecture Hall No.107.

Photo/filming opportunities: A workshop is being held today (Thursday 28 November) ahead of the three-day conference. An initial photo/filming opportunity would be in the textiles studio of the Creative Arts Faculty (opposite Room 128) with the Yvonne Koolmatrie workshop, Ngarrindjeri fibre artist, who exhibited in the Venice Biennale 97. Website: Further details can be obtained by visiting www.uow.edu.au/arts/iscci/projects/ www.uow.edu.au/arts/iscci/projects/fabrications/f_conferences.html